1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, and more particularly to an information processing system which can be used for personal computers, game apparatuses, etc., for receiving and processing operation information which is wirelessly transmitted as data from a transmission device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional personal computers, game apparatuses, and the like are generally operated by means of wired-type operation inputting devices (controllers, keyboards, etc.). However, wired-type operation inputting devices have a limited range of use due to the length of connection cords. Moreover, when a large number of wired-type operation inputting devices are connected, the connection cords may get entangled so that the neighborhood of the apparatus may become messy. Therefore, in recent years, various methods for coupling operation inputting devices (transmission devices) to the main body of an apparatus (a receiving device) via wireless communication have been proposed.
Conventional systems in which transmission devices are coupled to a receiving device via wireless communication are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-64718 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-134079, for example. In the techniques disclosed in these publications, an identification code is provided for each transmission device; the transmission devices wirelessly transmit data with individually-set identification codes appended thereto; and a receiving device outputs the received data to a processing section only when the identification code contained in the data which is wirelessly received coincides with a previously-set identification code (software processing).
However, in such a system where transmission devices and a receiving device are coupled via wireless communication, the transmission device side needs a transmission unit for transmitting wireless data, and the receiving device side needs a receiving unit for receiving the wireless data. The receiving unit can only receive wireless data which is transmitted from a specific transmission unit. Therefore, in the case where a plurality of transmission devices are used in conjunction with one receiving device in the aforementioned conventional system, it is necessary to provide a plurality of receiving units respectively corresponding to the plurality of transmission units, therefore presenting a problem in that the system becomes complicated and the cost increases. Moreover, in the aforementioned conventional system, the communication paths between the transmission units and the receiving unit are set in a fixed manner. Therefore, it is impossible to arbitrarily change the transmission units which are usable in conjunction with a receiving unit, so that it may be necessary to provide as many receiving units as there are transmission units to use. Moreover, the selection of transmission devices cannot be performed in an automatic (program-oriented) manner in accordance with the content of processing (software) performed by the receiving device. Thus, the receiving device cannot control the receiving unit as to the selection of the transmission devices to be used, etc.